(Oct. 21) -- Young men who voted for John McCain lost more than a presidential election last November. A study says their testosterone level plummeted.
As polls closed on election night, researchers at Duke University and the University of Michigan had 183 men and women chew gum and spit into test tubes and analyzed their hormones.
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A few hours later, as Barack Obama supporters began celebrating, they tested hormone levels again, and then later, at two more intervals.
Men who voted for Obama maintained stable testosterone levels, while men who voted for McCain saw those levels drop more than 25 percent.
"What this study shows us is how stress and outside stimulus influences our physiology," said Duke University spokesman Karl Leif Bates.
Bates said the hormone study falls in line with other research on how interpersonal contests boost or reduce testosterone.
"We've tested men playing video games, and we've found the same temporary drop or rise in testosterone," Bates said. "We're soon going to repeat this test at a Duke-UNC game."
Testosterone –- a hormone a man manufactures in his testes – has been linked to stress, aggression and risk-taking. Women manufacture testosterone, too, in their ovaries and adrenal glands.
A woman's testosterone levels are lower, and that makes them less likely to experience rapid testosterone changes.
In the study, testosterone levels for Democratic and Republican women remained stable.
Republican men can take comfort in the fact that the testosterone drop was only temporary, and that the midterm elections are coming.
